Yesterday on CNN’s The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer interviewed former CIA analyst Larry Johnson about the Wilson-Plame affair. Johnson is almost as shameless a media hound as Joseph Wilson himself — appearing often on cable TV, adding his commentary to the anti-FNC documentary Outfoxed, and blogging at the popular TPM Cafe. Most memorably, he wrote an op-ed for the New York Times in the summer of 2001, titled “The Declining Terrorist Threat.”

During yesterday’s appearance, he made several nasty comments about NRO contributor Cliff May. Here’s the relevant transcript:

BLITZER: Let me read to you from a Bob Novak column in “The Chicago Sun-Times” and other newspapers October 1, 2003, a couple of months or so after he revealed her name. He writes this. He wrote this, at last — at least, two years ago: “It was well known around Washington that Wilson’s wife worked for the CIA. Republican activist Clifford May wrote Monday, in ‘National Review Online,’ that he had been told of her identity by a non-government source before my column appeared and that it was common knowledge. Her name, Valerie Plame, was no secret either, appearing in Wilson’s — Joe Wilson — ‘Who’s Who in America’ entry.”
JOHNSON: Yes. Well, that’s…
BLITZER: That doesn’t make it sound like she was very covert.
JOHNSON: Not only does — you know, Bob Novak once again demonstrates he doesn’t know what he’s talking about. And that is a lie. I defy anybody. I have got $5,000 that says that you can’t find a reference to Valerie Plame and the CIA prior to Robert Novak’s column. Can’t do it. The fact that she’s married…
BLITZER: Well, why would Clifford May say that he knew about it?
JOHNSON: Clifford May has been wrong on a whole variety of things.
BLITZER: But he’s a respected guy, Clifford May.
JOHNSON: Well, he’s respected by some people. I don’t respect him, because I…
BLITZER: I have known him for many years, going back to when he was a reporter for “The New York Times.”
JOHNSON: His information — his information — his information on this issue has been repeatedly wrong. And, again, I’ll bet Clifford May $5,000. Find the reference prior to Robert Novak’s column in which that information was out there. It wasn’t out there. Not only that. When Valerie wrote that check to Al Gore’s campaign as a member of Brewster-Jennings, she was living her cover. Not a single neighbor knew that she worked for the CIA.

I asked Cliff May what he thought about this exchange. Here’s how he responded:

As usual, Larry shows that his CIA training equipped him for neither the collection nor the analysis of facts. Five quick points:
1) As soon as Joe Wilson wrote his op-ed, acknowledging that he had taken an assignment for the CIA, anyone with access to “Who’s Who” would also know that Valerie Plame was married to an occasional CIA contractor. Surely, that would have limited the kinds of covert assignments she could take in the future.
2) Of course, she could have taken covert assignments under another name — up until the time she posed for Vanity Fair. (After that, she’d need both a new name and a good disguise.)
3) I believe that Larry is telling the truth when he says that covert agents drive to and from Langley every day. But those who commute to Langley — including Larry — might consider that smart foreign intelligence agents could follow them and realize they were not simply . visiting the CIA gift shop to buy cufflinks for an uncle in Omaha.
4) Bob Novak was indeed the first to put in the newspaper that Valerie Plame was a CIA “operative.” Bob Novak — not a friend of mine — insists he did not know nor mean to suggest that she was an undercover operative. He thought she was just an analyst.
5) The first to reveal specifically that Plame was a NOC was David Corn in the Nation a few days after Novak’s column appeared. Corn provided specific details about her work and her cover. I am convinced Corn’s source was Joe Wilson. Who else could it have been?
One more thing: The only thing I’ve written that was wrong was in my first column on Wilson. I assumed he was telling the truth when he said (and/or implied and/or told Nick Kristof at the NYT) that Cheney had been responsible for sending him to Niger. That turned out to be false.

You can watch the video of Johnson’s appearance on The Situation Room here and decide for yourself who wins this particular exchange.

A SIDENOTE: This is not the first time I’ve written about Larry Johnson. Back in July, he called into question a post I wrote about an interview with Admiral Bob Inman, former deputy director of the CIA. Johnson spoke with Inman after reading my post. Then Johnson reported that Inman said I misquoted him. Then Johnson called me a liar.

I didn’t have time for a lengthy response as I had taken some time off to get married, but I did post a quick rebuttal and left it at that. However, I spoke to Inman after I returned from vacation just to clear things up between us. I told Inman that Johnson had accused me of misquoting him. Inman, it turns out, hadn’t read the original item in which I had quoted him — he only knew what Johnson had told him. When I read to him what I had written, including the line, “[The leaking of Plame’s identity] is still one I would rather not see,” he said that he found nothing wrong with what I had written. He said that’s not the way Johnson had presented it to him. So Johnson had the nerve to accuse me of misquoting someone when I was the one who had been misquoted.